


The Ghosts that Haunt Us (It's Time to Go Home)

by starshipslytherin



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:48:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27326086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starshipslytherin/pseuds/starshipslytherin
Summary: Obi-Wan's Force Ghost decides to go haunt Darth Vader, and has no intention of stopping. Vader wishes it was possible to kill ghosts.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 85
Collections: New SW Canon Server Works





	The Ghosts that Haunt Us (It's Time to Go Home)

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for one of the Halloween prompts on the New SW Canon discord server, "Force Ghost". I [originally posted it on Tumblr](https://starshipslytherin.tumblr.com/post/633545573377736704/the-ghosts-that-haunt-us-its-time-to-go-home).

Darth Vader realised something was seriously off about his life about one month after the destruction of the Death Star.

What initially seemed like an unfortunate streak of bad luck began, if he thought back on it, shortly after he finally had his revenge on Kenobi. Things around him seemed to mysteriously disappear; datapads and pieces of flimsi at first, nothing significant. For every item Vader lost, he would find an excuse. He was agitated, after all; that had to make it more difficult to focus, he reasoned.

At first, what agitated him was, as much as it pained him to admit this to himself, the fact that his revenge on Kenobi had not actually provided the pleasure and relief he had hoped. In fact, melancholy washed over him as he tried to meditate on what should have been grim satisfaction as any Sith would have felt it. There simply was no satisfaction. Of course not, he rationalised; he had spent nearly two decades hunting Kenobi down, thirsting for vengeance, forgetting that Kenobi was but one man who could only be killed once, and that, even if he had drawn it out, could not possibly have satisfied his thirst.

Then, of course, as he began to grow ever clumsier, as it seemed, he was at risk of being thrown into a vicious cycle. Vader valued competence and skill above all else; killed his own men for failure, even, yet he himself seemed to somehow be unable to hold himself to his own standards, which in turn threw him off even more. Sometimes, his failures seemed inexplicable, as he kept misplacing his helmet, making him late for his duties. He did not particularly care for the Death Star, but he failed to take out the fighter of the young Rebel who ultimately destroyed it.

Which, he did admit, was rather fortunate, as the pilot turned out to be his son. His son he had believed to be dead, stolen from him by Kenobi - how he wished he could hunt and kill Kenobi all over again.

After he learnt about Luke Skywalker, his agitation escaped his control fully. He crashed his TIE Advanced in the hangar. Twice. His cape kept getting tangled and stuck wherever he went, sometimes as if some invisible being had tied it around the legs of a chair. One time, he noticed in the middle of a battle that he appeared to have brought a signalling lamp instead of his Lightsaber, even though he could have sworn he checked multiple times, wary of his own ineptitude.

At the back of his mind, he always worried about how his Master would punish him if he found out. And so, he began to shield a lot more than usual, which he was afraid might have also taken from what little focus he seemed to have available.

And yet, despite all, despite all the stress, he found that ever since he killed Kenobi, he slept like a baby every single night. Where he had struggled to get rest for decades, even just a few hours, he found that now, whenever he lay down, or even just got into a comfortable sitting position hoping to get at least a little bit of rest, it was as though some sort of gentle, calming energy washed over him and allowed him to come at peace for seven to eight standard hours.

This meant that he had more energy to put into his, well, leadership style.

“You have failed me for the last time, Commander.”

The commander, of course, cared very little for Vader’s words, and more for whatever it was that was currently strangulating him. The veins on his temples protruding, his eyes popping, the man gave a noise that might be described as a cross between a gasp and cough, then stopped squirming. Vader released his hold of him and let him drop to the ground.

“Take him away,” he gestured at two Stormtroopers, who shared a look with each other, then scurried over and complied.

With a sigh, which his vocoder translated into a small static noise, Vader turned on his heels and strode away, off to his private wing. It seemed to him that ever since he had killed Kenobi, he compared each new kill to that one, and each new kill seemed just as lacking.

Sometimes, Vader had the impression that he could still sense Kenobi around, but he told himself that this had to be merely a consequence of the fact that he had been searching for the old Jedi so persistently for all this time, and his scanning the Force for his signature (calling upon the place within him where there had once been their bond, and where now, there was a gaping wound that never ceased to bleed) had merely become a habit that would take time to unlearn.

And with time, he told himself, it would sink in that Kenobi was dead now, and once it did, he would finally be satisfied.

It was a relief to finally return to the privacy of his quarters, and once the doors shut behind him, he was suddenly fully ready to forget all his troubles for the time being, and sink into a much-needed meditation session. 

Only when he was about to -

“Now don’t you think that was a bit harsh of you, back there? That poor man was doing his best!”, a voice spoke from right behind him.

Vader immediately whirled around, grabbed his Lightsaber, and switched it on. Whoever dared to intrude into his sanctuary, to disturb him, deserved to meet a quick end.

There was no blade when he turned on his Lightsaber. What he was holding was a flashlight (although it was now ignited).

There was no person in his quarters, either. At least, not really. It had to be more of a hallucination, as he knew this person to be dead.

What cruel irony, Vader thought bitterly to himself; Kenobi has never haunted me more than in death, wherein I believed I would finally find peace.

He stood stiff unmoving, waiting for the hallucination to vanish on its own; it certainly looked just like Kenobi, aged and worn as he had last seen him, although the figure was transparent and had a strange, bluish hue about it.

Then, it moved. Vader followed it with his eyes as it leaned back against the wall as if for support.

“It’s strange, really, seeing you so lost for words,” it mused, and still, sounded exactly like Kenobi as it appeared to straighten out its robes. Jedi robes.

Everything about its appearance matched Kenobi’s; Vader could attest to that, as he had been seeing this image in his mind ever since.

The hallucination frowned as if expecting him to respond, but Vader was dignified enough not to talk to a hallucination. Instead, he reached out through the Force hoping to choke it (perhaps that would make it go away, and it would certainly feel good, given that it presented itself in Kenobi’s image).

He learnt two things, then. First - the hallucination did not respond to his attempt to choke the life out of it; second, its Force signature did strangely resemble that of Kenobi, even if it felt both dimmed down and as if it was present all around him, as though it had been diluted, weakening its essence but tainting the entire ocean that was the Force with it.

“You can’t strangle the dead, Anakin.”

That sent a wave of rage through Vader’s bones, and another one right after as he realised what power this mere hallucination held over him.

“You,” he snarled, pointing at the apparition with his flashlight, “are not real. You are a product of my imagination.”

The product of Vader’s imagination cocked its head and smiled smugly. “Even if I was, your reaction to me still says a lot about you.”

Vader folded his arms in front of his chest, flashlight still in hand. “That matters little, since you are not real.”

“Am I not? I would say I very much am. You see, the dark side is all things evil, destruction and death, but the light always prevails. And so, you were not able to destroy me. I am very much real.”

Vader scowled behind the mask. Could the Jedi really have unlocked the secret to immortality? - No. This was a foolish idea, and a foolish thought to pursue.

“I killed you,” he snarled. “After so many years, I finally destroyed you.”

“Well, I’m sure you must feel better now.”

“I did,” Vader snapped half-heartedly, wagging a finger in Kenobi’s smug visage. “At least until you returned to haunt me.”

Kenobi shrugged. “Oh, I could not have brought myself not to take that opportunity. I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

Suddenly, it dawned on Vader - all his little incongruities, everything that had begun to go wrong after his fateful duel with Kenobi -

“I have had enough of your shenanigans. I will tolerate this no further!”

Kenobi frowned. “What are you going to do about it, Anakin? Kill me?”

Vader pressed his lips together. “There will be consequences,” he hissed through gritted teeth.

“I’m a ghost. There’s nothing you could do to me that you haven’t already done, and you know this.”

Vader stared for a while, anger boiling within his entrails and threatening to wash over him, but he did still see reason - for now, the ghost was right, and all he could do was let out a hearty groan. 

“If you disturb my meditation, ghost,” he snapped, “I will - I will -”

“What will you do to me, Anakin?”, the ghost smiled.

“Do not use that name.”

Kenobi pushed himself forward from the wall, and leaned back into it casually with one shoulder. “What if I do?”

Vader suppressed the instinct to aim another threat Kenobi's way, as he could not think of one that might actually be effective against a ghost, so instead, he threw the flashlight at him. It passed right through the ghost and burst into little pieces when it hit the wall behind him at full force.

“Oh, dear,” Kenobi sighed.

“Do not replace my Lightsaber again!”, Vader snapped and stalked away towards his hyperbaric chamber.

Luckily, the ghost had not followed him, he noted as he sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief as the chamber closed around him, and his helmet was lifted off his head with a hissing sound.

Vader had come to treasure his meditation chambers like no other place. Here, he could escape the suit as well as the galaxy around him. Here, he could focus on himself and the force. Here, he was alone and at one with the Dark Side. Drinking in its potent power and allowing it to rejuvenate him, he closed his eyes and began to let himself drown in it.

“Yes, breathe,” Kenobi’s grating voice jerked him out of his ritual. Heat rose from the pit of his stomach up into his head, hot anger; how could Kenobi dare disturb him in here? See him in here?

But Kenobi was not anywhere to be seen.

“Now you’ve broken your focus.”

Vader gritted his teeth as he realised the voice seemed to be talking _inside his head._

“Come on. You said you needed to meditate, and I agree. I’ll help you. Close your eyes.”

Vader huffed, seething, but decided that talking to a disembodied voice would be a little too much for today. Perhaps he could simply ignore it, if he sunk deep enough into meditation, or, better even, let it fuel his rage and therefore his connection to the dark side.

And so, he closed his eyes.

Immediately, Kenobi’s voice sounded satisfied.

“Very good. Now, breathe, in and out, and focus on the Force. The Force is balance between all things, like the moment between breaths.”

Vader felt the bile rising inside of him. How could Kenobi speak to him now as he did to Skywalker before he betrayed and maimed him and left him for dead?

Hatred swelled in Vader at the thought. Perhaps he could let it fuel him, renew his old pain to make him even stronger. 

“There is no emotion, there is peace,” Kenobi began to recite the Jedi mantra.

Vader never wished to destroy him so desperately as he did in this very moment in time.

“There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

Well, apparently, Kenobi did not _know_ when to leave people alone. That thought amused Vader.

“There is no passion, there is serenity.”

If only Kenobi knew how passionately Vader would strangle him if he could. He would not even use the Force. He would do it with his own hands.

“There is no chaos, there is harmony.”

If only there was a little less chaos in Vader’s life - but to hope for such a thing would be foolish thinking. Things have not been simple for him since - well, not for a very long time, that was for certain.

“There is no death, there is the Force.”

Before Vader’s inner monologue could produce another sarcastic comment, it stumbled over this line.

Had the secret to immortality always been in the hands of the Jedi? Was it in this very line, hidden in plain sight?

When he was young, he had always assumed this line had some obscure, hidden meaning that needed to be pondered for hours, or perhaps that it did not actually have any meaning at all and was only meant to inspire such ceaseless pondering, but what if -? And what would that mean? Had the Jedi known, and kept it from him? Or had he - only needed to ask? His Master never did teach him to overcome death; had he - betrayed him?

No, he mentally reprimanded himself; this had to be the presence of the Jedi getting into his head. He needed to resist this temptation, refuse to go along with his words.

He proceeded to try to do so, but there was no ignoring a voice that was literally inside his head. Eventually, he stopped resisting, and after a while, Kenobi’s voice faded to the background.

After Kenobi had revealed himself to Vader, there was no return to his state of blissful ignorance. Even when he had doubted his own abilities due to the ghost’s interference, at least Vader could have some quiet moments. Now, Kenobi would appear at the most inconvenient of times and not stop talking.

Sometimes, other people were there, and Vader would have to tune out Kenobi’s running commentary as he gave the appearance that he was in fact not being haunted by an apparition.

Other times, Vader was alone, which was somehow worse, as he had no excuse to ignore the ghost, who had something to say about anything Vader ever did.

“ _This_ is where you live?”, Kenobi asked incredulously as Vader was just flying his shuttle back to his fortress on Mustafar.

Vader did not answer.

“Of course it is,” Kenobi muttered.

To no avail, Vader tried multiple techniques to try and shut the ghost up, like giving him the silent treatment (which just gave Kenobi more opportunity to talk), turning his back on him whenever he appeared (Kenobi would just reappear before him), or swinging his lightsaber at him in an attempt to deter him (Kenobi never even so much as flinched). Kenobi would criticise his Lightsaber forms when he trained, and chide him for his leadership style (Vader began to carefully consider each execution simply in an effort to reduce the number of times he would have to listen to the same sermon), and every now and then, Vader would notice that another Jedi Holocron had gone missing. Kenobi claimed he was taking them “back where they belong”, a mysterious place, given there were almost no Jedi left. A subject he did not wish to bring up with Kenobi, so he kept it to himself.

If there was anything that Vader wished Kenobi would talk more about, but that Kenobi prefered to remain decidedly silent over, it was the subject of Luke Skywalker. That was especially true after he found out Vader’s master wished for the boy to be converted to the dark side. 

“Luke will not turn,” Obi-Wan said smugly. “Bend over backwards, he would rather give his life.”

“Do not,” Vader pointed at him, “speak that way.”

Little did Vader know Kenobi was right.

He had devised the perfect plan to lure his son to him. The boy’s attachment to his friends was the very same naive and foolish weakness that had led to Anakin Skywalker’s downfall. It could be exploited in Luke as well, perhaps for the worse, as Luke’s misguided allegiance with the Jedi and the Rebels had already proven, but Vader would use it to get close enough to the boy to help him find his true potential, and once Luke was his, he would ensure the boy’s weaknesses would all be quelled. He would reveal to Luke how the Jedi, how _Kenobi_ had lied to him, manipulated him, and correct his misconceptions. Once Luke knew the truth, he would join his father and take his rightful place at his side, and together, they would rule the galaxy as father and son.

Well.

Vader had underestimated how deep Kenobi’s betrayal reached.

And he would murder Kenobi once again no matter what it would take. Ghost or not, he would somehow achieve it.

“I see the boy got your shoulder,” the ghost spoke gleefully as soon as Vader was back in his quarters. “Impressive.”

Thick, cold fury swelled up in Vader. “ _You_. You have no place to speak here. You stole my son from me. You have stolen everything from me.”

Surprisingly, Kenobi said nothing to that.

“You betrayed me, you stole away all that was mine, and for nineteen years, I did not know peace until I had my revenge. Yet even in death, you continue to torture me.”

Kenobi slowly shook his head. “I did what I believed was right. And even now, all I want is to help you.”

“ _Help_ me? I do not require your _help_ , Kenobi. You are a liar. You have always lied, and now, you have corrupted my son as well. Every day, I live with the pain you brought on me. All this is your doing!" Vader stepped forward, into the ghost's space, towering over him. The ghost did not react, only regarded him. "You were weak, and I am strong, because everything that I am, I am in spite of you. Everything that you taught me, I purged from my mind, to be stronger, and ghost or not, I will find a way to rid the galaxy of you anyway. And I will find my son and save _him_ from your lies as well.”

Kenobi gazed at Vader, then at the ground, and nodded slowly. Where their bond had once been, Vader felt a dull, heavy pain, like sadness.

“If you do not want me here, I will leave," Kenobi whispered. "I did fail you, and I’m sorry. Still, I know that there’s good in you, light that cannot be broken. The light always prevails.”

Vader readied himself to spit another insult at the ghost, but before he could open his mouth, he vanished into nothingness.

He did not return.

It was strange, getting used to the silence again. Vader did not realise how alone he had been until Kenobi's ghost had appeared in his life, and how, no matter how much he resented him, he would miss his presence.

Not so much the constant chatter, but the serene, calm moments in which the two had actually gotten along, and now that Kenobi was gone, Vader only saw those moments, looking back. 

Anakin Skywalker was never a patient or avid practitioner of meditation, but Vader had come to appreciate the art of it and practice the craft to perfection. Yet, with Obi-Wan's voice guiding him through it, catching his stray thoughts before they could distract him, he had experienced the best meditation sessions of his life.

Sometimes, when Vader had been working, Obi-Wan had chattered without pause, but sometimes, Obi-Wan had only kept him company, watching him as he sorted through his datapads and comm messages, humming some gentle, long forgotten tune that had gotten Vader through the most tedious assignments, and without it, without Obi-Wan there, the silence was loud and pressing and nearly unbearable.

His sleep, now, was once again troubled and riddled with nightmares, and he realised that was how he could be certain Obi-Wan was truly gone; he only knew now that Obi-Wan must have assisted him in finding rest, even before he revealed himself, and if he had no better excuse to wish for his return, this was it.

But Obi-Wan did not return. Not to Darth Vader.

Darth Vader ceased to exist for Luke. Luke, who had once willingly jumped to what might have been his death to escape Darth Vader, dragged Anakin Skywalker with him to his ship, even though he himself could barely walk, his muscles still spasming from the Emperor's lightning.

Anakin could sense he did not have much time left, but to look upon the boy now - so kind, so strong-willed, so good, he knew that at least as he took his dying breath, he would not be alone. He had this boy, who had chosen over and over again, no matter what temptations the galaxy had offered him, to remain within the light, to remain true to himself. Luke had chosen to be a better man than his father, and Anakin took comfort in the knowledge that his son would always choose the same. He had seen it.

_Obi-Wan once thought as you do._

Luke would go out into the galaxy and make it better, Anakin was sure of that. The Emperor was defeated, and Luke would build a new, better Republic. And unlike his father, Luke would not be alone. Luke would always have his friends at his side, and of course, he had a sister. Perhaps he knew her already, perhaps not, but Anakin could sense that both of his children would always be together, always have each other.

He had protected them. He might not have been a good man, not remotely as good as his children, but he had given what he could to protect them, to allow them to be better than himself.

He understood that he was ready to go.

And as he let himself fall, let peace wash over him as he knew he was finally free, he sensed a familiar presence, and he felt his oldest, deepest wound finally heal.

"Anakin," he heard Obi-Wan's voice, "come with me. It's time to go home."

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun writing this! I hope you enjoyed it as well! ♥️


End file.
